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Subject: HOLOCAUST FAQ: Auschwitz-Birkenau: Layman's Guide (2/2)
Summary: Research guide to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex
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Keywords: Auschwitz
Archive-name: holocaust/auschwitz/part02
Last-modified: 1999/12/23
Auschwitz: A Layman's Guide to Auschwitz-Birkenau
Part Two
5.0 Administration.............................................15
5.1 Command Staff............................................15
5.2 Medical Staff............................................17
5.3 Selection................................................18
5.4 Tattooing................................................18
5.5 Medical Experimentation..................................19
5.5.1 Clauberg...............................................21
5.5.2 Mandel.................................................21
5.5.3 Mengele................................................22
5.5.4 Oberhauser.............................................22
5.5.5 Schumann...............................................23
6.0 Research Sources & Other Useful Appendices.................23
6.1 Recommended Reading......................................24
6.2 Abbreviations Used in Citations..........................27
6.3 Glossary.................................................27
6.4 Works Cited..............................................28
[Auschwitz] [Page 15]
According to Snyder, Adolf Eichmann reported to Himmler, in 1944, that
four million had been killed in the camps, and another million had been
shot or killed by mobile units. (Encyclopedia of the Third Reich.
1989) Eichmann's report, which referenced _all_ the camps (most of which
were in Nazi-occupied Poland), may have been the source of the Polish
Communist government's figures. (Snyder is a Professor of History at
the City College and the City University of New York.)
During the war crimes trials, Hoess was asked if it was true that
he had no exact numbers because he had been forbidden to compile them,
and he agreed. He also agreed that Adolf Eichmann had told him that
two and one half million people had been exterminated there.
(von Lang, 120, and 'Wspomnienia Rudolfa Hoessa komendanta obozu
oswiecimskiego,' Warsaw, 1965.)
The Institut Fuer Zeitgeschichte, Munich, provided the following
capsulated paragraph about Auschwitz in a March, 1992, letter of
inquiry.
(http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?orgs/german/ifz/ifz.report)
The extermination camp in Birkenau, established in the second
half of 1941, was joined to the concentration camp Auschwitz,
existing since May 1940. From January 1942 on in five gas
chambers and from the end of June 1943 in four additional large
gassing-rooms gassings with Zyklon B have been undertaken. Up
until November 1944 more than one million Jews and at least 4000
gypsies have been murdered by gas. (IFZ)
While it is admittedly difficult to compile exact figures, since the
Nazis did not maintain registration records for those who were to be
exterminated immediately upon arrival at Auschwitz, it seems accurate
to assert that the number of Jews killed fell somewhere between one
and one-point-six million.
Jews were not the only victims of the Auschwitz killing machine -
estimates that from 200,000 (Gilbert, 22, Kendrick, 184) to 500,000
(Bubenickova, 190, Yoors, 34) Gypsies were ultimately destroyed are
noted by Laska. Himmler signed the decree sending all of them to
Auschwitz in 1942. In addition, an unknown number of homosexuals were
sent to Auschwitz and executed.
The Leuchter Report, which Foner alludes to extensively in his Spotlight
article, has been thoroughly refuted. For detailed information about the
report, see the Leuchter FAQ, published regularly in this newsgroup.
(http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/leuchter/)
4.2 Estimates of dead by nationality [Work in progress]
4.2.3 Polish Christians
The number of Polish Christians registered at Auschwitz is
given as at 137,000, and "at least" 10,000 more were put
murdered without registration. (Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death
Camp, 69-70) Lucas tells us that historians disagree with
regard to the total number of Polish Christians killed by
the Nazis, Lukas, 88-95) and Bauer reportedly puts the figure
at 83,000. (Steinfels, Peter. "Auschwitz Revisionism: An
Israeli Scholar's Case," New York Times, 12 Nov. 1989
5.0 Administration
5.1 Command Staff
Fritsch, Hauptsturmfu"hrer (Credited with the first use of Zyklon-B
as means of exterminating human subjects. See Breitman, 202)
Grabner, Maximillian. Head of Political Department
[Auschwitz] [Page 16]
Hoess, Rudolf Franz (1900-1947). Hoess joined the Nazi party in
1922. In 1923, he was implicated in a murder and imprisoned to serve
a life sentence. He was released as a result of a general
amnesty, in 1928. After training during service at Dachau and
Sachsenhausen, he was rewarded for his loyalty with a promotion to the
rank of SS-Hauptsturmfu"hrer (see Glossary) and the commandant's job
at Auschwitz, where he remained until December of 1943, when he was
promoted to chief of the Central Administration for Camps. (Sachar.
http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?people/h/hoess.rudolf.ferdinand/hoess.01
http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?people/h/hoess.rudolf.ferdinand/hoess.02
http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?people/h/hoess.rudolf.ferdinand/hoess.03)
According to Snyder, " He performed his job so well that he was
commended in a 1944 SS report that called him "a true pioneer in this
area because of his new ideas and educational methods."
Hoess was captured on March 11, 1946, and was a key witness at Nuremberg
(Kaltenbrunner, I.G. Farben et al). On May 25, he was extradited
to Poland. During this period, he wrote his autobiography, "Commandant
of Auschwitz: Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess." (Cleveland: World
Publishing, 1959) His statement is available in the original German
text, and in English translation. (Get
http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?people/h/hoess.rudolf.ferdinand/hoess.statemen)
According to Sachar, he, "...took pride in his exemplary family life,
the devotion to his children and his pets. He recalled, wistfully,
how he had been obliged to tear himself away from a Christmas
gathering to attend to duties at the gas chambers. The daily death
quota then was still a mere 1,500, but he was eager to make sure it
was met. When one of his lieutenants was condemned to death for his
part in the Auschwitz murders, Hoess and his family lamented `Such a
compassionate man, too. When his pet canary died, he tenderly put
the body in a small box, covered it with a rose, and buried it under
a rose bush in the garden.'(Hoess, 25)(Sachar)
During his trial, the evidence "...repeated...what he had written..."
in his autobiography. "He described, with the dispassion of a robot,
how he had gradually stepped up executions, beginning with a few
hundred a day and then, as methods were perfected, rising to 1,200.
By mid-1942, facilities had been sufficiently enlarged to dispatch
1,500 people over a twenty-four-hour period for the smaller ovens,
and up to 2,500 for the larger ones. By 1943, ... a new daily peak
of 12,000 was achieved. Hoess described the final routines of the
extermination process. These were assigned to squads of Jewish
prisoners, the Sondercommandos. They marched the victims to the gas
chambers, helped to undress them, removed the corpses after the
gassing, extracted gold from their teeth and rings from their
fingers, searched the orifices of their bodies for hidden jewelry,
cut off the hair of the women, and then carted the bodies to the
crematoria. Usually after several weeks of such service they were
executed, first because they were Jews but also so that they would
not be witnesses if ever testimony were required." (Sachar)
Hoess was tried in Warsaw, in March, 1947, and condemned to death.
(Hanged on April 16, 1947, at Auschwitz.)
[Auschwitz] [Page 17]
Kramer, Josef. Commandant at Birkenau.
Mandel, Maria. Head of the women's camp at Auschwitz after serving
at Ravensbruck.
5.2 Medical Staff
Testimony from German court records relating to the trials of SS men
charged with medical killing at Auschwitz is now available from our
archives. The source for this data, Nauman, is listed in Section 6.1,
Recommended Reading.
(http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?camps/auschwitz/auschwitz.010)
Clauberg, Karl. Pursued his experiments on live specimens in
Auschwitz. Involved in sterilization projects there. (Laska, 222)
Dr. Wladyslav Dering. Dering was a Polish prisoner
Dr. Entress
Gebhardt, Karl. Involved in vivisection projects at both Ravensbruck
and Auschwitz. Shot as war criminal in 1948. (Laska, 225)
Hantl
Klehr
Kremer, Johannes Paul. Vivisection. Sentenced to death in a Crakov
trial, but later recieved amnesty.
Mengele, Josef (1911- ?). Mengele was appointed chief doctor at
Birkenau by the Camp Garrison Doctor in 1943. He joined Drs. Klein,
Koenig, and Thilon in running the selection process. Bibliography:
Gerald L. Posner and John Ware, "Mengele: The Complete Story", New York,
McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986.(Snyder) Mengele is believed dead,
but his fate remains unknown. (See the 1991 "Children of the Flames,"
for citations regarding Mengele's experimentation on twins)
Muench, Hans. SS Untersturmfuehrer.
The doctor and former SS-Untersturmfuehrer Hans Muench was among
the 40 members of the Auschwitz camp personnel indicted and tried
in Krakow in Poland 1946-1947. The trial led to some 20 death
sentences, but Muench was acquitted.
He had taken part in gassings but had refused to assist in the
so-called selections. Some ex-prisoners also testified in his
favour. After his release, Muench returned to Germany where he
continued his medical practice. In 1964 he testified at the
Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt am Main. He agreed to an interview
with Swedish television in 1981, against the wish of his family.
It has been broadcasted twice on Swedish TV, in 1982 and 1992.
A translation of this television interview may be found at
ftp.nizkor.org, in the directory pub/people/m/muench.hans, as
swedish-television-interview (our thanks to a Swedish user for
providing this text). Snippets from court testimony are
also available in the same directory.
[Auschwitz] [Page 18]
Oberhauser, Herta.
Scherpe
Schumann, Horst.
5.3 Selection
In a report entitled "Resettlement of Jews," SS-Sturmbannfu"hrer
Gricksch provided the following information for SS-Col. von Herff
and Reichsfu"hrer-SS Himmler, after inspection between the 14th. and
16th. of May, 1943. (Fleming, 142)
The Auschwitz camp plays a special role in the resolution of the
Jewish question. The most advance methods permit the execution
of the Fuehrer-order in the shortest possible time and without
arousing much attention. The so-called "resettlement action"
runs the following course: The Jews arrive in special trains
(freight cars) toward evening and are driven on special tracks
to areas of the camp specifically set aside for this purpose.
There the Jews are unloaded and examined for their fitness to
work by a team of doctors, in the presence of the camp
commandant and several SS officers. At this point anyone who
can somehow be incorporated into the work program is put in a
special camp. The curably ill are sent straight to a medical
camp and are restored to health through a special diet. The
basic principle behind everything is: conserve all manpower for
work. The previous type of "resettlement action" has been
thoroughly rejected, since it is too costly to destroy precious
work energy on a continual basis.
The report then describes the fate of those unlucky enough to have
been considered incurably ill or unfit for slave labour, and provides
some details with regard to the killing process.
The results of this "resettlement action" to date: 500,000 Jews.
Current capacity of the "resettlement action" ovens: 10,000 in
24 hours.
5.4 Tattooing
Buszko (see above), writing in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust,
explains why some prisoners were tattooed, while others were not:
Prisoners were registered and received numbers tattooed on
their left arm upon leaving the quarantine in Birkenau for
forced labor in Auschwitz or in one of the subcamps. The same
procedure applied to those prisoners who were directed straight
to Auschwitz I: 405,000 prisoners were registered in this way.
[Ed. Note: Buszko later notes that only 65,000 of those so
registered and tattooed survived. knm] Not included in any
form of registration were the vast majority of the Auschwitz
[Auschwitz] [Page 19]
victims, those men and women who, upon arrival in Auschwitz II,
were led to the gas chambers and killed there immediately.
Also not included in the registration were those prisoners who
were sent to work in other concentration camps not belonging to
the Auschwitz system. ... Still another group of unregistered
prisoners were those who were designated for execution after a
short stay in the camp. That group consisted mainly of
hostages, Soviet army officers, and partisans." (Encyclopedia,
Vol. I, 110-111)
5.5 Medical Experimentation
Several of the seventy or more medical-research projects conducted by
the Nazis between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1945 were conducted
at Auschwitz. These projects involved experiments conducted with
human beings against their will, and at least seven thousand were so
treated, based upon existing documents and personal testimonies;
there were undoubtedly many more for which no documentation or
personal testimony remains.
About two hundred German medical doctors were involved in the
concentration camp experiments, conducting 'Selektionen,' medical
services, and research. They maintained close professional ties with
the German medical establishment, and used the universities and
research institutes in Germany and Austria in their work.
Dr. Ernst Robert Grawitz, SS Chief Medical Officer, received all
requests for authority to perform experimentation, and obtained two
opinions before passing them to Himmler with his recommendation.
Grawitz used Dr. Karl Gebhardt, Himmler's personal physician, for
one opinion, and Richard Glu"cks and Arthur Nebe for the other. He
then passed his report to Himmler, who took great interest in the
experiments and often interfered with them.
There were three broad classes of experiments. The German Air Force
conducted experiments at Dachau (and elsewhere) dealing with survival
and rescue, including research into the effects of high altitude,
freezing temperatures, and the ingestion of seawater.
Medical treatment constituted a second class, and involved research
into the treatment of battle injuries, gas attacks, and the
formulation of immunization compounds to treat contageous and
epidemic diseases.
Finally, there were racial experiments, including research into
dwarfs and twins, serological research, and skeletal examination. It
is this class of horrors that returns us to Auschwitz.
(Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, 957-958)
[Auschwitz] [Page 20]
During his interrogation of Adolf Eichmann, Israeli police Captain
Avner Less brought up the subject of Eichmann's complicity in medical
'research' projects which had been approved by the Reichsfu"hrer-SS,
Heinrich Himmler, and read three documents to him. What follows is
the text of Less's interrogation at that point...
LESS: I have some photostats of documents that were submitted in
the first Nuremberg war crimes trial, the trial of the
physicians. The sender of this letter is the business manager
of Ahnenerbe. I'll read it to you. "Berlin, November 2, 1942.
Secret. To SS-Obersturmbannfu"hrer Dr. Brandt. Dear Comrade
Brandt: As you know, the Reichsfu"hrer-SS gave orders some time
ago to the effect that SS-Hauptsturmfu"hrer Prof. Dr. Hirt
should be supplied with everything he requires for his research.
For certain anthropological investigations -- I have already
reported to the Reichsfu"hrer-SS on the subject -- 150 skeletons
of prisoners or Jews are needed, and these are to be made
available by the Auschwitz concentration camp." Etc. etc. It's
signed: "With comradely greetings, Heil Hitler, Yours, Sievers."
The second document is a report by this Professor Hirt. "Re:
Procurement of the skulls of Jewish-Bolshevistic commissars for
scientific research at the University of Strassburg." I quote:
"Extensive skull collections from nearly all races and people
are in existence. It is only of Jews that so few skulls are
available to science that work on them admits of no secure
findings. The war in the East now offers us an opportunity to
make good this deficiency. In the Jewish-Bolshevistic
commissars, who embody a repulsive and characteristic type of
subhuman, we have the possibility of acquiring a reliable
scientific document by acquiring their skulls. The smoothest
and most expeditious way of obtaining and securing this
provision of skulls would be to instruct the Wehrmacht to hand
over all Jewish-Bolshevistic commissars immediately to the
military police. The person charged with securing this material
(a young physician or medical student belonging to the Werhmacht
or better still to the military police) is to prepare a
previously specified series of photographs and anthropoligical
measurements. After the subsequently induced death of the Jew,
whose head must not be injured, he will separate the head from
the trunk and send it, immersed in a preserving fluid, in
well-sealed lead containers made especially for this purpose, to
the designated address."
And now the next document. A letter of June 21, 1943. From
Ahnenerbe. Top secret. "To Reich Security Headquarters IVB4,
Attention: SS-Obersturmfu"hrer Eichmann. Re: Skeleton
collection. With reference to your letter of September 25,
1942, and the consultations held since then regarding the
above-mentioned matter, we wish to inform you that Dr. Bruno
Beger, our staff member charged with the above-mentioned special
mission, terminated his work in the Auschwitz concentration camp
[Auschwitz] [Page 21]
on June 15, 1943, because of the danger of an epidemic. In all,
115 persons, 79 male Jews, 2 Poles, 4 Central Asians, and 30
Jewesses, were processed. These inmates have been placed, men
and women separately, in the concentration-camp sick quarters,
and quarantined. For the further processing of these selected
persons, immediate transfer to Natzweiler concentration camp is
desirable and should be effected as quickly as possible in view
of the danger of infection in Auschwitz. A list of the selected
persons is appended. You are requested to send the necessary
instructions."
And now for the last document. "The Reichsfu"hrer-SS Personal
Staff, Field Headquarters, November 6, 1942. Secret. To Reich
Security Headquarters IVB4. Attention: SS-Obersturmfu"hrer
Eichmann. The Reichsfu"hrer-SS has ordered that Dr. Hirt, head
of the Anatomy Department in Strassburg, should be supplied with
everything needed for his research. In the name of the
Reichsfu"hrer-SS, I therefore request you to help establish the
projected skeleton collection. per. proc.
SS-Obersturmbannfu"hrer Brandt." (von Lang, 169-171)
Thus the German government's full complicity in the crimes committed
at Auschwitz under the guise of "medical research" is clear, with a
chain of evidence reaching all the way to Himmler.
5.5.1 Clauberg
Professor Carl Clauberg performed experiments into sterilization at
both Auschwitz and Ravensbru"ck. This was done on Hitler's
initiative, as he had been convinced by several doctors that mass
sterilization could provide a powerful weapon against Germany's
enemies during total war.
Clauberg injected chemical substances into wombs during normal
gynochological examinations. Thousands of Jewish and Gypsy women were
subjected to this treatment. Clauberg sought to answer Himmler's
query about how long it would take to sterilize one thousand women,
and eventually informed him that, using methods he developed, a staff
of one doctor and ten assistants could do the job in a single day.
The injections totally destroyed the lining membrane of the womb and
seriously damaged the ovaries of the victims, which were then removed
and sent to Berlin to test the effectiveness of the method.
(Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, 964)
5.5.2 Mandel
... after Ravensbruck ... was the head of the women's camp at
Auschwitz; the prisoners referred to her as `the beast.' For her
share in the selections for the gas chambers and medical
experiments and for her torture of countless prisoners, she was
condemned to death in 1947 as a war criminal. (Laska)
[Auschwitz] [Page 22]
5.5.3 Mengele
Mengele promoted medical experimentation on inmates, especially
dwarfs and twins. He is said to have supervised an operation by
which two Gypsy children were sewn together to create Siamses twins;
the hands of the children became badly infected where the veins had
been resected. (Snyder)
Cohen tells us: "The only firsthand evidence on these experiments
comes from a handful of survivors and from a Jewish doctor, Miklos
Nyiszli, who worked under Mengele as a pathologist. Mengele subjected
his victims - twins and dwarfs aged two and above - to clinical
examinations, blood tests, X rays, and anthropological measurements.
In the case of the twins, he drew sketches of each twin, for
comparison. He also injected his victims with various substances,
dripping chemicals into their eyes (apparently in an attempt to
change their color). He then killed them himself by injecting
chloroform into their hearts, so as to carry out comparative
pathological examinations of their internal organs. Mengele's
purpose, according to Dr. Nyiszli, was to establish the genetic cause
for the birth of twins, in order to facilitate the formulation of a
program for doubling the birthrate of the 'Aryan' race. The
experiments on twins affected 180 persons, adults and children.
Mengele also carried out a large number of experiments in the field
of contageous diseases, (typhoid and tuberculosis) to find out how
human beings of different races withstood these diseases. He used
Gypsy twins for this purpose. Mengele's experiments combined
scientific (perhaps even important) research with the racist and
ideological aims of the Nazi regime. which made use of government
offices, scientific institutions, and concentration camps. From the
scanty information available, it appears that his research differed
from the other medical experiments in that the victims' death was
programmed into his experiments and formed a central element in it."
(Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, 964)
5.5.4 Oberhauser
Dr. Herta Oberhauser killed prisoners with oil and evipan
injections, removed their limbs and vital organs, rubbed ground
glass and sawdust into wounds. She drew a twenty-year sentence
as a war criminal, but was released in 1952 and became a family
doctor at Stocksee in Germany. Her license to practice medicine
was revoked in 1960. (Laska, 223)
[Auschwitz] [Page 23]
5.5.5 Schumann
Himmler, writing to SS-Oberfu"hrer Brack, on August 11, 1942,
expressed an interest in sterilization experiments involving
the use of x-rays (Get pub/camps/auschwitz/sterilization). In April
of 1944, he received a report of the work of Dr. Horst Schumann
"on the influence of X-rays on human genital glands" at Auschwitz.
The report included the following statement:
Previously you have asked Oberfuehrer Brack to perform this
work, and you supported it by providing the adequate material in
the concentration camp Auschwitz. I point especially to the
second part of this work, which shows that by those means
castration of males is almost impossible or requires an effort
which does not pay. As I have convinced myself, operative
castration requires not more than 6 to 7 minutes, and therefore
can be performed more reliably and quicker than castration by
X-rays.
Schumann set up an X ray station at Auschwitz in 1942, in the woman's
camp Bla. Here men and women were forcibly sterilized by being
positioned repeatedly for several minutes between two x-ray machines,
the rays aiming at their sexual organs. Most subjects died after
great suffering, or were gassed immediately because the radiation
burns from which they suffered rendered them unfit for work. Men's
testicles were removed and sent to Breslau for histopathological
examination. The frequently following ovariotomies were performed
also by the Polish prisoner, Dr. Wladyslav Dering. Dering once bet
with an SS man that he could perform ten ovariotomies in an
afternoon, and won his bet. Some of his victims survived. Dering
was declared a war criminal but eluded justice and for a time
practiced medicine in British Somaliland. (Laska, 223. Encyclopedia,
Vol. 3, 965)
6.0 Research Materials & Sources
Vera Laska notes that there are over ten-thousand printed sources
relating to Auschwitz alone, and offers this guidance for those pursuing
Holocaust research:
Yad Vashem Martyrs' and Heroes' Memorial Authority in Jerusalem
is a depository of documents and memoirs on the Holocaust,
mostly in German, Hebrew and Yiddish. It also issues the Yad
Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and
Resistance. (The 1991 Yad Vashem English publications guide is
now included in the Holocaust Almanac bibliographies. Get
pub/holocaust/bibliography/biblio.05)
[Auschwitz] [Page 24]
The Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine in Paris and
the Wiener Library in London are major sources of information.
The Wiener Library's catalogue series published a bibliography,
Persecution and Resistance Under the Nazis (London: Valentine,
Mitchell, 1960). ...
In the United States the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
(1048 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10028) houses several
collections of ghetto documents and related primary source
materials. It publishes the YIVO Annual of Jewish Social
Science. Since 1960, Yad Vashem* and the YIVO** Institute have
been engaged in preparing a multivolume bibliographical series
on the Holocaust; one of the volumes, Jacob Robinson, ed., The
Holocaust and After: Sources and Literature in English
(Jerusalem: Israel University Press, 1973) is most helpful.
* (URL: http:/yvs.shani.net/)
** (URL: http://www.ort.org/communit/yivo/start.html)
The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (823 United Nations
Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10017) supplies teaching materials at
reasonable prices, for instance The Record - The Holocaust in
History, 1933-1945, published in cooperation with the National
Council for Social Studies in 1978.
The Library of Congress and the National Archives are rich
sources for researchers, containing among others the
transcripts of war crime trials. This in itself is an immense
documentation; for instance, the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial of
twenty-three defendents alone takes up 11,538 pages in nineteen
volumes. Indexes can be consulted about various concentration
camps. ...
In addition to the massive amount of information Laska notes, additional
bibliographic sources are available through the Holocaust bibliographic
files available on http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?bibliographies and
elsewhere. In particluar, see the list of major research centres listed in
EDUCATION RESEARCH.CNTRS, which was added to our archives in December, 1994.
6.1 Recommended Reading
Our Holocaust archives are available via InterNet Gopher. To access
this service, use the command "gopher jer1.co.il". The archives
are also available via World Wide Web
(URL: http://www.nizkor.org) and anonymous ftp (ftp.nizkor.org).
[Auschwitz] [Page 25]
Suggested reading related to Auschwitz, from the Encyclopedia of the
Holocaust and elsewhere:
Brugioni, Dino A., and Robert G. Poirier. The Holocaust Revisited: A
Retrospective Analysis of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Complex.
(Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C.) February 1979.
The paper includes aerial photographs of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
complex in operation during WWII. A summary of their analysis
is included in the paper. These photos corroborate eyewitness
accounts/Nazi documentation on camp operations.
You can obtain a copy from the US gov't through the following
sources:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
or:
Photoduplication Service
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C. 20540
Use the report number(#st 79-10001) and the document number
(NTISUBE28002) to speed service along. The document # is
particularly important.
Brewster, Eva. Vanished in Darkness. Edmonton: NeWest Publishers
Limited, 1984. (First-person account of life within Auschwitz)
Friedman, P. "Crimes in the Name of Science," in "Roads to Extinction:
Essays on the Holocaust." Edited by A.J. Friedman. Philadelphia, 1980
Gilbert, M. Auschwitz and the Allies. New York, 1981
Gutman, Yisrael, and Michael Berenbaum, Ed. Anatomy of the
Auschwitz Death Camp. Bloomington and Indianapolis: 1994
Gutman, Y., and A. Saf, eds. The Nazi Concentration Camps:
Structure and Aims; The Image of the Prisoner; The Jews in the
Camps. Proceedings of the Fourth Yad Vashem International
Historical Conference. Jerusalem, 1984
Hoess, R. Commandant of Auschwitz. London, 1959
Ja"ckel, Eberhard, and H. David Kirk, trans. David Irving's Hitler.
Port Angeles, Washington: Ben-Simon Publications, 1993
Kielar, W. Anus Mundi: Fifteen Hundred Days in Auschwitz-
Birkenau. New York, 1980
Kudlien, F., ed. A"rzte im Nationalsoczialismus. Cologne, 1985
[Auschwitz] [Page 26]
Lagnato, Lucette Matalon and Sheila Cohn Dekel. Children of the
Flames. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1991 (Mengele's
experimentation with twins at Auschwitz)
Langbein, H. Auschwitz-Prozess: Eine Dokumentation. 2 Vols.
Vienna, 1965
Langbein, H. Menschen in Auschwitz. Vienna, 1972
Lifton, R.J. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychiatry
of Genocide." New York, 1986
Levi, P. Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity. New
York, 1981
Lukowski, J. Bibliografia obozu koncentracyjnego Oswiecim-
Brzezinka. 5 vols. Warsaw, 1970
Mark, B. The Scrolls of Auschwitz. Tel Aviv, 1985
Mitscherlich, A., and F. Mielke. Doctors of Infamy: The Story of
Medical Crimes. New York, 1949
Mu"ller, Filip. Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers.
New York: Stein and Day, 1979
Nauman, Bernd. Auschwitz: A Report on The Procedings Against Robert
Karl Ludwig Mulka and Others Before the Court at Frankfurt. New York:
Frederick A. Praeger, 1966
Piper, Franciszek, and Teresa Swiebocka, Ed. Auschwitz, Nazi Death
Camp. Oswiecim, 1996. Book supplied by the Auschwitz State Museum.
Piper, Franciszek. Auschwitz: How Many Perished - Jews, Poles,
Gypsies... Oswiecim 1992.
Proctor, R. Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis.
Cambridge, Mass., 1988
Keys, Laurinda. Death Books of Auschwitz. K.G. Saur, 1995. (See
http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?camps/auschwitz/press/death-books.001
and ~/002 for information concerning the release of this work.)
See also the Transcripts of the Trial of Adolf Eichmann
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/
Social Studies School Services offers an extensive list of teaching
materials dealing with the Holocaust, and Auschwitz. For a list of
books, videotapes, and photo histories, see
http://www.nizkor.org/bibliographies/ssss.shtml.
Of particular interest are the videotapes "Kitty: Return to Auschwitz,"
"Nazi Concentration Camps," the official film record of the Nazi death
camps as photographed by Allied liberation forces in 1945, and
"Holocaust: Liberation of Auschwitz."
[Auschwitz] [Page 27]
6.2 Abbreviations Used in Citations
The following abbreviations may be used throughout this document:
IFZ.........Institut fu"r Zeitgeschichte, Munich
IRR.........Investigative Repository Records
NA..........United States National Archives
RG 59.......NA Diplomatic Records
RG 84.......Washington National Records Center, Diplomatic Post Records
RG 153......Washington National Records Center, Records of the
Office of the (Army) Judge Advocate
RG 165......Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs,
Washington National Records Center
RG 208......Office of War Information Records, Washington National
Records Center
RG 226......Office of Strategic Services Records
RG 238......War Crimes
EC Series
NG........Microfilm T-1139
NI........Microfilm T-301
NO Series
NOKW Series
PS Series
RG 242......NA Record Group 242 - Captured German Records
RG 319......Records of the Army Staff
T...........NA Microfilm Series
If you note any that are not explained above, please let me know,
and I will try to run them down for you.
6.3 Glossary
Ahnenerbe: [Ancestral Heritage], The Institute for the Scientific
Study of Ends and Purposes, located in Berlin.
(http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?people/e/eichmann.adolf/eichmann.006)
Einsatzgruppe: Battalion-sized, mobile, armed unit of police
Einsatzgruppen: Battalion-sized, mobile, armed units of police,
primarily Security Police and SD officials, which were used
to attack and execute perceived enemies in conquered territories.
(Brietman, 311)
Einsatzkommando: Company-sized component of the Einsatzgruppen
(Ibid., 311)
Gauleiter: Supreme territorial or regional party authority(-ies)
(The term is both singular and plural). The Nazi Party divided
Germany and some annexed territories into geographical units
called Gaue, headed by a Gauleiter. (Ibid., 311)
General Government: The Nazi-ruled state in central and eastern
Poland. Headed by Governor Hans Frank. (Ibid., 311)
[Auschwitz] [Page 28]
Final Solution: Euphemism for the extermination of European Jewry
SD (Sicherheitsdienst): The SS Security Service
Selektionen: (Selection) The process by which newly-arrived prisoners
were divided into those capable of work, and those deemed unfit
for work, i.e. those to be exterminated immediately.
Sonderkommandos: Division of Einsatzgruppen, generally smaller than
Einsatzkommando, but also a more general term for special
commando units assigned particular functions. (Ibid., 311)
Military rank - here's a list from Breitman (314) which lists SS
ranks and the Western military equivalent:
Oberstgruppenfu"hrer General
Obergruppenfu"hrer Lieutenant General
Gruppenfu"hrer Major General
Brigadefu"hrer Brigadier General
Oberfu"hrer between Brigadier & Colonel
Standartenfu"hrer Colonel
Obersturmbannfu"hrer Lieutenant Colonel
Sturmbannfu"hrer Major
Hauptsturmfu"hrer Captain
Obersturmfu"hrer First Lieutenant
Unterscharfu"hrer Corporal
Rottenfu"hrer Private, First Class
Sturmann Private
SS-Mann no equivalent
6.4 Works Cited
Borkin, Joseph. The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben. New York:
The Free Press, 1978, and London: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Breitman, Richard. The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final
Solution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
Bubenickova, Ruzena. Tabory utrpeni a smrti. (Camps of Martyrdom and
Death) Prague: Svoboda, 1969
Conot, Robert E. Justice at Nuremberg.
New York: Harper and Row, 1983. ISBN 0-06-015117-X
Encyclopedia - See Gutman
Feig, Konnilyn G. Hitler's Death Camps. LOC D810.J4 F36, 1981
Fenelon, Fania, with Marcelle Routier. Playing For Time.
New York:Athenium, 1977. ISBN 0-689-10796-X
[Auschwitz] [Page 29]
Fleming, Gerald. Hitler and the Final Solution. Berkeley, 1984
Foner, Samuel P. "Major Historical Fact Uncovered" SPOTLIGHT
Vol. XIX, Number 2, January 11, 1993)
Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust, Maps and Photographs.
New York: Mayflower Books, 1978.
Gutman, Israel, ed. in Chief, et al. Encyclopedia of the
Holocaust. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1990. ISBN 0-02-
896090-4 (set) (Referenced in this FAQ as "Encyclopedia")
Hoess, Rudolf. Commandant of Auschwitz: Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess.
(As quoted in Sachar)
Hilberg, Raul. Commandant of Auschwitz (London: Weidenfeld and
Nicholson, 1959)
Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. Holmes & Meier,
1985. See 967-976.
IFZ. The Institut Fuer Zeitgeschicthe, Munich, as quoted in their
letter to Dr. Keren, March, 1992
Kenrick, Donald, and Grattan Puxon. Destiny of Europe's Gypsies.
New York: Basic Books, 1972, as cited in Laska
Klarsfield, Serge. The Holocaust and Neo-Nazi Mythomania, as quoted
in Feig.
Klee, Ernst, Willi Dressen, and Volker Riess, eds.
`The Good Old Days' -- The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and
Bystanders. Forward by H. Trevor-Roper. The Free Press, A division of
Macmillan, Inc, 1988, ISBN 0-02-917425-2
Langbein. Der Auschwitz Prozess. Vol. I, as quoted in Pressac.
Laska, Vera, ed. Women in the Resistance and in the Holocaust: The
Voices of Eyewitnesses. London: Greenwood Press, 1983. LOC 82-12018,
ISBN 0-313-23457-4
Lengyel, Olga. Five Chimneys. Chicago: Ziff-Davis, 1947, as cited in
Hilberg.
Lukas, Richard C. "The Polish Experience during the Holocaust" in
Michael Berenbaum, ed. A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and
Murdered by the Nazis (New York : New York University Press, 1990)
Mu"ller, Filip. "Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas
Chambers", as cited by both Feig and Hilberg. Museum w Oswiecimu.
"KL Auschwitz seen by the SS Hoess, Broad, Kremer," 2nd. ed., 1978
Naumann,. Auschwitz.
Nurowski, Roman. 1939-1945: War Losses in Poland (Poznan, 1960),
as cited in Lukas.
Poliakov, Leon. Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the
Destruction of the Jews of Europe. Syracuse University Press.,
1956.
[Auschwitz] [Page 30]
Pressac, J. C. Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers.
New York: Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1989
Rogers, Perry M., ed. Aspects of Western Civilization
Sachar, Abram L. The Redemption of the Unwanted. New York:
St. Martin's/Marek, 1983.
Snyder, Dr. Louis L. Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. (New York: Paragon
House, 1989.)
Steinfels, Peter. "Auschwitz Revisionism: An Israeli Scholar's Case,"
New York Times, 12 Nov. 1989
von Lang, Jochen, in collaboration with Claus Sibyll. Eichmann
Interrogated: Transcripts from the Archives of the Israeli Police.
Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim. New York: Farrar, Straus
& Giroux, 1983
Wiesel, Elie. Night. (New York, 1969), as cited in Hilberg.
Yoors, Jan. A Journal of Survival and Resistance in World War II.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971, as cited in Laska

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